Max Beckmann: Day and Dream, drawings (1946)
Max Beckmann: Day and Dream, drawings (1946)
Ideen liegen massenhaft vor. Man könnte eine Mapp[e] mit biblischen od. mythologischen Motiven eine Circus und Theater u. Café mappe oder auch alles zusammen machen. Ein Titel wird sich schon finden. Müßte nur das Format wissen. das müssen Sie bestimmen.
[I have lots of ideas. You could make a portfolio with biblical or mythological motifs, a circus and theatre and café folder or put it all together. A title would be forthcoming. Would just have to know the format - that you have to determine. (ed. trans.)]
Max Beckmann in a letter to Curt Valentin early/mid-March 1946
In 1946 Max Beckmann created prints for a portfolio at the behest of his New York dealer Curt Valentin; it was to be his last. Of the 90 pictures in the portfolio, he painted some with watercolours. After considering drypoint etchings, he opted instead for lithographs drawn on transfer paper. The portfolio includes six pictures. The 15 sheets lack any overarching topic such as “Annual Fair” in the portfolio of 1921 or “Big City” in the portfolios of 1919 and 1922. The title Day and Dream is accordingly inconclusive, as was the preceding one: Time-Motion. The portfolio is therefore not as composed as the aforementioned and rather more calls to mind the portfolio Gesichter [Faces], wherein Beckmann gathered individually created sheets.
In Day and Dream the series begins with a self-portrait; the artist makes clear who made the pictures. What follows is a mishmash. Scenes depicting random private impressions alternate with nudes, cryptic imagery, political allegories and biblical scenes, among others. The style of drawing is likewise extremely varied. There are pictures with clear, fixed forms, but also very loose, seemingly spontaneous ones; some lithographs are drawn only with chalk, others only in ink, others in combination. And finally, as with all drawings from the forties, the quality of the sheets varies.
At the beginning of the series we see the bust of the artist with a black cap, in his raised left hand a cigarette. In contrast to this nonchalant gesture, the expression on the sculpted face appears earnest and resolute, underscored by the firmly-seated cap, whose slightly askew attitude suggests a certain vim.
Another sheet shows the figure of the seemingly dead war god Mars, who lies on a cart with a lance in his chest, but on the cart the threatening words “I come back”. After the end of the horrific War, Max Beckmann did not submit to the illusion that peace would now reign forevermore.
Further reading:
Lenz, Christian: Schön und schrecklich wie das Leben. Die Kunst Max Beckmanns 1937 bis 1945. In: Max Beckmann. Exil in Amsterdam. Ausstellungskatalog. Amsterdam / München: Hatje Canz 2007/2008, S. 33-107
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